The Hero Who Wasn't
by Flaire Murasawa
Summary: After the Edward mess in high school, Ivan was hiding from his classmates.  Who would hire a coward as a hero? An Origami Cyclone origin story.


I watched the episode where they revealed Origami Cyclone's powers, and thought that his hero name and theme did not match his powers at all! He obviously wasn't hired for his powers, because they wouldn't be useful with the suit. So, why?

Disclaimer: I do not in any way possess any ownership over the anime title "Tiger & Bunny" or any of its affiliations. This is a non-profit work for free distribution. Please support the series and its creators.

"We would like you to be our hero."

Ivan's breath caught. Him? No, it had to be a mistake. He wasn't even in the top twenty-five percent of his class.

There were two of them, in suits, bodies plumped with wealth and power. They had come to his school to find him.

"You are a hard man to get a hold of," one of them had declared as soon the principal ushered him into the room. "You didn't reply to our mails or answer our phone calls. Whatever the other corporations are offering you, we will raise it by twenty percent."

He was hiding. The crisis with Edward had divided the school. He was well known and liked, not only for being the top his class but also for his astounding feats during hero training exercises—not everyone could beat a rock-golem-encased teacher by simply diving through and dragging her out of it. And even if he was but a fuzzy yellow ball in a split-second of news footage, everyone with a television heard Edward screaming, "Help me, Ivan!" Although no one paid any attention to the small boy following the redhead around before, everyone at school knew his name now.

The man who spoke continued, "You possess the exact qualities we are looking for to represent our company."

He was accosted in class, sometimes from people who offered support, sometimes from others who wanted his head.

"You should have helped him, what kind of hero are you? What kind of friend are you?"

"You did the right thing. Edward broke the rules, and look where that got him!"

Sometimes fights broke out.

The scolding, the comforting, the bullying, the defending, Ivan was sick of it. No one cared about him before, but now everyone wanted to get in his face. He rarely walked the halls as himself anymore, sticking close to the walls, in the guise of some other unnoticeable student. And although he escaped the attention, he couldn't escape the speculation, the gossip, the chatter. At home, he'd deleted all this phone calls and e-mails without bothering to check them. He knew what they were about, anyway.

This is probably what happened to the messages these corporate guys claimed they sent.

When Ivan made no sign of interest, the second cleared his throat. "As you probably already guessed, we heard about you on the news, from that terrible incident."

The fact that they learned who he was and what school he went to from nothing but a hoarsely shouted name in the midst of a hostage situation spoke volumes about how much they wanted him. But, why?

"We know that you were there, but chose not to put yourself in danger, like your friend did. We like that."

Ivan started. What were they saying…?

Noticing they now had his attention, he started up again. "Heroes may be the saviors of Sternbild City, but to us, the sponsors and those at HeroTV, heroes are an investment. We pay them a salary and give them a suit, so that our company would be more renowned and gain increased revenue. However, what heroes seem to lack is a healthy sense of self-preservation."

"We go through the trouble of selecting a hero, put funds into R & D for a suit, and then there's maintenance, repairs, hospital bills, property lawsuits…"

The second man hurriedly hissed something into his coworker's ear, which quieted him immediately.

"Anyhow, as you can deduce, heroes are a business. We provide the means for the heroes to do their…hero-ing, and we only ask one thing from our heroes in return…to put our logo in the public eye."

"To advertise," the other one picked up. "Unfortunately, it's hard for advertisements to be viewed from under six stories of rubble."

"Or six feet under," mumbled the previous speaker.

The blonde was getting more and more confused. These were things everyone knew about heroes, but from the way they were skewing their pitch, it sounded like…

The second man ignored his partner. "What we need is a hero who won't dive headlong into disaster with no regard for his safety or his sponsors. We need someone who will think before he acts, and know when to stay out of a hopeless situation. We need someone like you."

"But-but I'm no hero!" Ivan snapped, leaping to his feet. "Edward was the hero, he just wanted to save someone's life! I…I did nothing."

"And that is exactly what we want to keep doing—staying out of trouble." Was that a friendly smile, or a taunting smirk? "After our last two heroes, we have a better idea of what we are looking for. We will pay you to wear our suit and appear on the HeroTV network. However, we will not require you to put yourself in danger. In fact, we even discourage it."

Ivan kept his eyes on the ground.

"So you want me to wear your logo and get on television. You don't want me to protect people or keep the peace or safeguard lives." Edward wanted to catch terrorists and stop bank robbers. Now he never would. He turned to leave. "You don't want a hero, you want a walking billboard."

"You will still be a hero—you'll be our company's hero. You'll be my hero! Our employees are people, too. Please, Mr. Karelin."

'You can be a hero,' Edward told him.

This was his chance.

Ivan wanted to find kidnapped children and rescue victims from car accidents.

This should have been Edward's chance.

'I'm going to famous and make lots of money!' Edward proclaimed with a smile.

This was all wrong.

"I will give you a personal tour and orientation of our company to help you decide. We can even pick you up in a limo. You can bring your family. We have great employee insurance and benefits-"

"When?"

"I'm sorry?" The businessman halted his sales pitch to better hear the soft voice.

"When is the orientation going to be?"

This was for Edward.

Their relief could easily be seen in the way their robust bodies sagged, stomachs protruding over their waistbands. They rambled about how he wouldn't regret this and this was the best decision of his life as he filled out paperwork and took their cards. Their cheerful chatter about their great support team and technology sounded as if they were speaking through water, drowned out by Ivan's self-loathing.

The last "i" was dotted and Ivan was just out the door (he refused to shake hands) when one of the men realized they forgot something important.

"By the way, what is your power, young man?"

A/N: I wouldn't have gotten into this series if it weren't for the great artists in Artist Alley at Anime Expo 2011 in LA (and one Kotetsu cosplayer who used tape to make the pattern on her hat). I saw so much terrific art of Tiger & Bunny there that I finally had to ask someone "What is this anime?" So if you drew Tiger & Bunny art for AX, I'd like to say "Thank you! And Thank you again, artists!" This is for you!


End file.
